Projects 4 & 5

I am thrilled to report that we made it to project 5. Remember what that means? Time to open an etsy shop for these creations!!! As promised, all proceeds will go to Save the Children. Please watch for an announcement for the opening of the shop (and in time for holiday shopping too!).

These projects were done by my daughters (age 4 and 7) and I. We made lots of felted balls out of wool roving. Then we decorated them. One project includes the decorated individual balls. The second project is the beautiful garland that Mali made with some of the balls and beads. These were both child-friendly projects, with some needed participation of the mama : ). Mali, who is 7, was perfectly able to string bead and buttons on to the felt balls and design them as well. Greta did some designing, and I sewed on what she wanted, where she wanted. All were capable of making the felt balls. It was rewarding for all of us, and it energized my passion for creating with kids.

Project #3

Yay!!! I've received the first mail-in contribution for Art to Heart! THANK YOU Beth and Hannah for the sewn headbands. They are a great contribution! I'm still counting. . . this is #3 of 5 projects. Once again, when I have 5 ready, I'll open up an etsy shop. Join me to make this happen!

Second Project done!

KNITTING NEEDLES

Project #2 is complete! I am sticking with my original plan, which is to collect 5 projects before opening an etsy shop. I would welcome any contributions from kids and parents who want to make something together for this cause. For this first round of projects, all proceeds will be donated to Save the Children. Even when progress is slow, we are on our way!

To make these knitting needles, here is what we did:

1. Use polymer clay to make several smallish balls. Also make tiny balls, and press them in to make dots. Another option is to make tiny snakes and press them in as swirls. Roll the ball again to make a smooth surface.

2. Press the decorated balls onto the end of a dowel rod, and bake at 275 for about 15 minutes. The dowels should be laid on a cookie sheet, with the balls hanging over one edge.

3. When the balls have cooled, take the dowels out.

4. Cut the dowels into about 10 inch pieces. Sharpen one end like a pencil. Use sandpaper to dull and smooth the end. Put oil or stain on the dowels.

5. When dry, use a hot glue gun to glue the balls back on the ends.

6. Let dry, and take pictures! : )

A first project!

Yay! We have completed our first project for this endeavor. Here are the steps we took:

1. Embroidering the image: I cut a piece of embroidery fabric to fit in Mali's hoop. I asked her what she wanted it to be, and she responded, "a flower," so I drew a flower with washable marker on the fabric. I taught her the backstitch and away she went. We used a pretty thick needle and I changed the thread for her when she was ready for a new color.

2. Preparing the patch: I washed the embroidered image in the sink by just swishing it around in mild soap, and set it in the sun to dry. Then Mali helped me iron the image and the background fabric. She pinned the image to the background fabric and cut a piece the same size. We then folded in and ironed down the embroidery fabric about an inch and the background fabric about a 1/2 inch.




3. Finishing up: After Mali selected the fabrics for the piece, I sewed them together, leaving the top of the patch open so it serves as a pocket.




It was truly a collaborative effort, and I want to be up front about that. As we travel further on this road, one thing I look forward to is both of us understanding better what she can do and what she is willing to do. I also want to be careful not to pressure her to do any of it. So far, she is still excited about it, and I want to be sure to stay in touch with how she's feeling about doing it.

As I said, my goal is to get 5 projects ready to sell (either made by us or any of you!). At that point, I will open the "door" of an Etsy shop and see if any of it sells.

Some ideas I've had about this today: For us, I think it will work best to set aside a semi-regular time (like, Wednesdays) when we work on a project for Art to Heart together. I am collecting ideas of ways to use scraps we already have around the house, and today came up with a few: a fabric snake, which is made of simply sewing varying lengths of strips of fabric, sewing them all together, stuffing, and finishing; fabric magnets, which simply involves cutting favorite pieces of favorite fabrics and sticking them to magnet paper.

Also, I just want to give any of you who are close to an IKEA a hint. If you already sew, you may have done this already, but if not, IKEA has so many adorable fabrics. I always stop at the "sold as is" room and dig through their linen bin, just looking at what fabrics I can get out of it. I've come across whole bedspreads and curtains for $1 each before. Oh, and last time I was there, I noticed they have started selling kids' fabrics in the kids section!

Invitation

So, here we go. If you are interested in this project, I invite you to begin!

I will begin by collecting works to sell on Etsy. The first organization we will send money to is Save the Children.

My advice is to start with one project with your child and see where it leads you. I think it's a good idea to make a plan with the child. Introduce the organization to them (see link to the right for information), and explain the concept of making something to sell and sending the money to the organization. Then maybe you'd like to talk with your child about what they would like to make, and how you will go about doing it together. Anything has potential, but some ideas Mali and I have talked about are: use embroidery squares to make a little purse or coin purse, a decorative piece for a pocket, sew it on a plain t-shirt, or frame it an sell as is; make pot holders with her weaving kit; make felted eggs or beads with wool roving; felt old sweaters and cut them into coasters. Please feel free to browse the links and books to the right for more ideas.

The goal is to allow the child to use his or her creativity as much as you can, and for the parent to help finish it, making it into something to sell. I will take anything you send and post it on etsy. You never know what will sell! I will make sure to post our etsy shop here, so that anyone who sends in items can check on them. Once I decide to send a contribution to the organization, I will announce it here as well.

If you need a mailing address to send your items to, please email art2heartkids @ hotmail . com (with no spaces).

Launching this site

Here we go. I got excited enough about this idea that I decided to start this blog -- a first step! I am inspired by the beauty of kids' art. I also am concerned that kids are getting less and less of it, and are therefore less and less inspired. As Mali has begun to really enjoy producing, I decided to go with it. My idea is this: I want to provide an avenue for kids to make art to sell, with all profits going to designated causes for children around the world. My desire is to support causes that really make a difference for children around the world, to inspire parents to work on art with their kids, and to provide an opportunity for kids to think beyond their own needs and contribute something of themselves to the world.

One risky part of this is that art, especially in the early years really should be focused on the process rather than the product. My fear is that a project like this may cause a parent to be too focused on the product. So, the other art form is taking something a child has created themselves and making it into something to sell. Cafe press is a great way to do this, or the parent's own creativity may be inspired as well. My vision is that the projects will be mostly created by kids, but in cooperation with their parent/caregiver.

I have some grandiose ideas about where this could go, but I am taming myself a bit, and starting with a basic idea. Beginning a blog about it was step one (check!). My hope with the blog is to reach out to my community and get feedback, ideas, concerns, etc. If this gets going, I may use the blog to display some of the work or brainstorm ideas for projects. Next, if I come up with 5 things made by kids, I will start an Etsy shop to sell the children's work. Right now, Mali is working on a series of embroidered pictures. We will make them into something sellable together. This will be experimental. I may only make $10, but that's $10 more that I will contribute to a cause that I care about. We'll just see where this takes us.

For now, here's a video for inspiration.

So, let me know what you think, including the name: Kids to Kids or Art to Heart or other ideas?

Stay tuned. . .